Endless berms and sandy singletrack — Swinley Forest MTB trails

A fantastic facility for riders in the South East and beyond, Swinley Forest is an expansive network of pines intersected with wide and fast gravel roads and fabulous handbuilt, graded mountain biking trails for all abilities.

Swinley Forest offers all you could wish for in a trail centre: marked trails including beginner green, intermediate blue and advanced red options, plus a bike shop, workshop and hire centre at Swinley Bike Hub. There’s also a great cafe at The Lookout Discovery Centre offering drinks, snacks and lunches. Toilet and bike washing facilities are available as well.

Swinley Bike Hub also offers coaching sessions, which are a great idea for riders of all abilities, whether that’s beginners looking to nail the basics or experienced riders looking to take their riding to the next level. Here, riders can make use of The Summit, an amazing skills development park which you can see from one of the main fire roads.

In this Collection, you’ll find routes for all the signposted mountain biking trails in Swinley Forest, including the green, blue, red trails, a route to get to the black-rated downhill runs, and a route that combines the blue and red for a mega loop. Although these are mostly waymarked with coloured fingerposts, having the .gpx file synced onto your cycle computer or on your phone app is a great idea as the routes are very wiggly, crossing or using many fire roads, and can get a little confusing at times! You might also find, like I did in the summer, that it can be a bit tricky to see some of the signs due to the high bracken.

Expect a multitude of berms, rooty singletrack, swooping corners and smaller trail features on your visit to Swinley Forest. The trails are all sculpted by hand and really well surfaced, made from material quarried on site, although it’s a good idea to wear waterproof socks when it’s been wet to stop your toes getting too soggy from the puddles!

I think that the best bike for Swinley Forest would be a longer travel XC full sus, but don’t let that put you off: it’s great on hardtails, trail bikes and even some rigids and gravel bikes depending on what trail you choose! There’s a fair bit of pedalling though, so bear that in mind.

If you’re travelling to Swinley Forest by car, you’ll be pleased to hear that there’s plentiful car parking and a day ticket is £6. By train, the closest station is Martins Heron, an easy 2 mile (3.2 km) ride from the trail centre.